Bourke needs more trees

Ian and Nan Landon-Smith on Tancred Drive last week with local tree care volunteers l-r: Ron Wood, Glenn Curtis, Ian Landon-Smith, Nan Landon-Smith and Dave Neylon. PHOTO TWH

Bourke needs more trees, and the town’s unofficial tree planters Ian and Nan Landon-Smith say they would be overjoyed to see Bourke Council engage in a big, well-planned tree planting project to enhance the town and replace the many trees lost in recent years.

For the last 11 years Ian and Nan, both now in their early 80’s, have been making regular trips to Bourke to look after almost 500 trees they have planted in various projects, beginning in 2009 with the avenue of trees along Tancred Drive – the section of the Mitchell Highway from Bourke to North Bourke.

Since then they have gradually taken on planting and caring for more and more Bourke trees, including the replanting of Vision Way, and tree planting projects on Renshaw Drive, the Bourke Showground complex, and around the cricket ground at North Bourke.

Ian and Nan were in Bourke last week to check up on the trees, replanting some that had died during the 2019 drought, and to prune, water, mulch and fertilise recent plantings.

“This was our 43rd trip to Bourke for the Tancred Way project,” Ian Landon-Smith beamed.

Ian and Nan are very passionate about their work, and when asked why they have travelled from their home in Sydney four times a year for over a decade to look after the trees, Ian said that they both get great joy and a lot of satisfaction from seeing the trees grow, and the improvement they have been on the Bourke environment.

Read more in the printed edition of the Western Herald.